Liverpool doctor who LIED TWICE about a nurse with Ebola suspended

Dr Hannah Ryan appears For Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service Hearing. Dr Ryan is accused of being dishonest when taking the temperature of a patient, believed to be 'Ebola Nurse' Pauline Cafferkey, at Heathrow airport in December 2014. (Image: Richard Stonehouse/Getty Images)

A Liverpool doctor who lied about the temperature of a nurse with the deadly Ebola virus to get her through customs was suspended from work today.

Dr Hannah Ryan and Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey returned to the UK in 2014 after working in Ebola-hit Sierra Leone and while they waited in the virus screening process at Heathrow Airport the 31-year-old took the temperature of Ms Cafferkey to speed up the process.

Liverpool doctor Hannah Ryan in Sierra Leone, where she went to help the fight against ebola.

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The reading, taken by the doctor who qualified from Liverpool University in 2009, revealed an abnormally high temperature of more than 38C - a clear warning sign of the disease.

However, instead of raising the alarm Dr Ryan recorded a temperature of 37.2C on a screening form which the tribunal said was made in a busy, stressful environment which may have clouded her judgement.

Ms Cafferkey travelled back to Scotland and fell critically ill the next day, she survived but put others at “unwarranted risk”.

Days after they returned home Dr Ryan lied again, this time to Public Health England, about the situation and said the reading was “normal” while failing to admit taking Ms Cafferkey’s temperature herself and it was then the tribunal said her conduct amounted to dishonest behaviour.

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Dr Ryan, who now works at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, admitted misleading health officials at the airport and failing to tell them what happened during their investigation. They have now suspended her from duty for a month.

The hearing was also told the medical team were desperate to get home to their family for Christmas and were exhausted from their work and travel and wanted to get out of the airport.

Liverpool doctor Hannah Ryan in Sierra Leone, where she went to help the fight against ebola.

While there were “extenuating circumstances” for her actions at Heathrow, her behaviour five days later was “deeply deplorable” the tribunal ruled.

When a consultant rang to investigate what had happened at the airport she gave a “dishonest” response to conceal her involvement, even though later that day she had called back, sounding “highly stressed”, and told them the truth.

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Dr Ryan was described as an “exceptional young doctor” who had volunteered to work in “horrendous” conditions to help the sick and dying, and had made a “one-off” mistake under extreme fatigue and pressure.

Today chair of the tribunal Dr Bernard Herdan said: “Since the tribunal is satisfied the risk of repetition of your misconduct is low, and their is no risk to patient safety, it has concluded that a one-month suspension will be sufficient to mark the seriousness of your misconduct and to send a message to the profession that dishonesty by a doctor cannot be tolerated under any circumstances.”